A Case of Impending Doom
by Sica Vamp
Summary: Dean and Sam are driving back to Bobbie's when they get stopped by a military road block and sent on a journey to Los Angels to put the ghost of the slayer's mother to rest. What happens after that, no one saw comming not even the Powers That Be.
1. The Meeting

"Dude can we get some new tunes? We've been listening to the same five cassettes for the last fiver years. There are some new rock groups you could listen to." Sam was currently trying to catch some Z's in the passenger seat of Dean's black 1967 Chevrolet Impala, or as Dean referred to it, his baby. They had just finished a job in Inperal Gables, California and were headed back to Bobbies in Lawrence County, South Dakota.

"Sam, man I need you to navigate real quick, which way do I go?" Dean pulled off the small road and onto the shoulder. Sam rolled over and sleepily pulled a road map from the glove compartment.

"Well, that depends, do you want to head towards Los Angeles on the Freeway which is the quickest way to Bobbies, or do you want to go the back roads to Bobbies?"

"I don't know man, were low on gas, I'm gonna say the quick way, there will defiantly be gas and motels on the freeway."

"Ok, freeway it is." Sam looked at the map for a few minutes before deciding on which direction to turn. "It looks like we turn left on I-10 here and once we hit Los Angeles. We need to grab I-15 north towards Los Vegas, and then I-90 into South Dakota. Now can I go to sleep?" Sam grumbled to himself.

"Yeah, man." Dean pulled back onto the road as Sam put the map back into the glove compartment and rolled back over to go to sleep. As Dean neared I-10 he started seeing signs that directed him to Los Angeles. "Well Sammy, you said Los Angeles, and after that Los Vegas and that means strippers." Dean turned to look at Sammy to see his sleeping form slumped against the window. "Right, you're asleep. Man, I need to stop talking to my self." Dean took the turn onto the freeway and began driving towards Los Angeles.

He stopped at a gas station a few minutes later and while the Impala was filling up with gas, Dean went into the station. As he walked in he noticed that for it being the middle of the night, there sure were a lot of people in the gas station. He went over to the soda refrigerators along the far wall and was deciding on what he wanted to drink when he over herd two men in the corner talking to each other. One man was tall. He looked like a lawyer to Dean because he had the whole suite and tie vibe that in Dean's mind meant Lawyer. The other man was shorter but more stocky to Dean he screamed handy man or grease monkey. The two men stopped talking when they noticed Dean. "Oh, don't mind me." Dean opened the refrigerator and grabbed a coke and an energy drink out of it. As he shut the door he gave the two men a big fake Dean smile and walked towards the candy isle. Dean thought the two men were a little weird but shook it off.

As he stood in the candy isle he overheard the lawyer. "I don't know man Los Angeles, that's suicide. The last guy we sent there came back as a vamp's chew toy, and it wasn't even the right vamp."

"No, man." The grease monkey responded. "If we do this right we take out the problem and the apocalypse is back on. Come on how hard is it to take out one vamp?"

"This guy isn't just one vamp, I mean he's like the Rambo of vamps. This guy makes Dracula look like a poodle." The lawyer took a breath and tried to calm down. "You did not have to work undercover there. He was taking people out left and right. I watched him behead a guy because he was having virgin blood baths in his off time. You don't know how hard it was to keep off his radar." The two men stopped talking again and looked at Dean. Dean quickly squatted down behind the candy isle before they spotted him. "He took on Wolfram and Heart. Do you know what they did? Do you?" The grease monkey shook his head no. "The opened a hell mouth in Los Angelus and sent an army of demons just to kill him. He's almost as annoying as the Slayer and her army." Dean moved some candy bars out of the way so that he could see the two men talking. The grease monkey looked as if he were about to say something, but the lawyer cut him off. "Do you know what happened to him and his friends when the army caught up to him?" The grease monkey shook his head no again. "When the army caught up with them, they disappeared. The army was four feet in front of them and they just freaking disappeared. They showed up seven days later, and they have been taking out every demon they've come across since. You want to know how hard it could be to take them out. Try taking out the slayer, it's that hard, maybe even harder. And worse yet one of them has taken out two slayers." The lawyer took a moment to calm down and lower his voice. Dean strained to hear the conversation. "If we want to take these guys out, were going to have to come at them from a different direction. We need to get in contact with him." The grease monkey looked at the lawyer from a second with complete terror in his eyes before his eyes turned black revealing that he was in fact a demon.

"I thought he was hunting down those two Winchester brothers, why would we want to bring him into our apocalypse? He'll take over. We won't be in control anymore."

The lawyer cut the grease monkey off, his eyes turned black and then melted to a dark blood red. "He is the father of us all. If he can't take out these insufferable do gooders then it can't be done." He wasn't entirely sure what the conversation the two demons just had was about, but he gathered that they were planning on bringing in some one who was after them to take care of their problem.

It seemed that the two men were done talking so Dean grabbed a hand full of Snickers bars and headed towards the checkout counter. On his way, he spotted a sale on salt and grabbed a twenty pound bag for the road. He made a quick stop at the magazine stand and grabbed the newest copy of Busty Asian Beauties. When he got to the check out counter the cashier gave him a funny look. "Low sodium." Dean gave the cashier a fake smile and paid for his soda, candy, salt, and porn then left the station. He put the salt in the trunk of the Impala and returned to the driver's seat with his candy soda and porn. "Well there go the strippers. Sam wake up we have a job." Dean shook Sam until he woke up and then recounted his adventure in the gas station as he pulled out of the gas station and returned to the freeway.

Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Dawn stepped off the plane and gathered in the terminal with their carryon luggage. "Ok, so we're here now what? Baggage claim right?" Xander asked the group of tired girls. "How do we get there?" Xander began turning in circles looking for the baggage claim.

"No Xander. We have to clear customs first. Then we can go to the baggage claim." Willow responded as her eyes dropped for the tenth time since they'd exited the plane.

"Ok, but were do we go?" Xander began turning in circles looking for customs.

"It's called signs you dork." Willow pointed to a sign over Xander's shoulder and began to lead the group thru customs, and once they were thru that mess towards the baggage claim. Once they were thru customs Buffy began to relax, it was good to be back in the United States.

"Ok, so we need to find our bags and then find a place to crash." Xander seemed to get a head of himself.

"Xander we have a hotel and everything already paid for by the Watcher Council." Dawn was trying to catch up to Xander as he rushed thru the airport.

"Hey once we get some sleep the first thing on the list for tomorrow is the mall. I heard there was a sell on shoes." Buffy seemed to not care about the mission the Watchers Council, mainly Giles had sent them on and that was upsetting Dawn.

"Hey, Giles did not send us here to go shopping, although a shoe sale sounds good. He sent use here to figure out what happened to Angel and his team. I know it's been five years since they took on Wolfram and Heart, who created a new hell mouth here just to spite them, but they might still be alive and if they are they may need our help." Dawn was upset that Buffy didn't seem to care about Angel and Spike's well being. They had reached the baggage claim and Buffy pulled her bag off as Xander was struggling with his bag.

"Dawn, I know this is difficult for you to understand, for everyone to understand, but their ok." Buffy was tired of trying to explain how she knew this. Everyone had told her she was crazy. If they were ok, they would have tried to call for help at some point. But she knew that after the fight in Paris five years ago something had happened, she knew they were ok. They had been brought to Paris by Whistler and threw some miracle Buffy had won the Battle but she had died once again. Everyone was quite surprised when she woke up on her funeral prier. Once she'd pushed those memories to the back of her mind she gave Dawn a smile trying to reassure her that she was right.

Once everyone had their bags, they went to the nearest car rental place in the airport and after standing in a rather long line retrieved their rental car. They exited the airport and went to their rental car, it was a back Escalade. "Swanky, Giles pulled out all the stops!" Dawn nearly squeaked when she saw the Escalade. "To bad he couldn't come too. Is this thing really bullet proof like the lady said?"

"Dawn, Giles couldn't come he's in charge of the Watchers Council, we were lucky to all be able to come together on this mission. It's been ages since we've all been together, its just like to good old days of Sunnydal. Besides he's afraid that if Angel is alive, he'll want to kill him for not helping them with their friend." Buffy laughed as she handed her bags to the driver. "And yes the Escalade is bullet proof."

Xander loaded their bags into the trunk while the girls pilled into the Escalade. Xander slide into the driver's seat and pulled away from the airport and the girls began to node off into a dreamless light sleep. Eventually Xander woke Willow up and she directed him to the hotel the Watchers Council had reserved for them. Xander pulled into the parking lot and woke Buffy and Dawn up. They struggled to get out of the Escalade, and then they pulled their bags out of the SUV and dragged them to the hotel. They entered the hotel and Xander quickly checked them in. The watchers council had procured three bedrooms that were connected together by a living room and full kitchen.

Dawn being the curious girl she was, wondered into the bathroom to be greeted by a toilet and shower, the standard bathroom accommodations. Willow walked into one of the bed rooms with her luggage and shut the door behind her not to be seen again. Buffy grabbed Dawn and her bags and took them into the room next to Willows room, while Xander took his baggage to the room across from the girls' room. After a few minutes of exploration, Dawn went into her room where Buffy was already crashed out on one of the beds. Dawn walked to the large window that covered the entire wall and looked out upon the city. "Well, it doesn't look like the city has been swallowed by a hell mouth, but then again I never really saw what that looked like. I wonder if they really are ok." She closed the curtains and walked over to the second bed and turned off the light before she passed out.

Buffy shifted in her sleep, she was having another nightmare. They had started out vague. She was walking thru her old house in Los Angelus. Then they began to become less vague. She would be there with Willow, Dawn, and Xander, he would make a joke she couldn't remember, then three men would walk thru the house like they were looking for something, and then Joyce would be there, she was trying to tell her something, something very important, something life changing, but Buffy couldn't hear her. It was like the dream was on mute when her mother showed up. And then just like that, the dream was gone. Buffy had been getting the same dream every night for the past month. When they started she did not remember them, but as the nights progressed she began remembering the dream more and more. When she'd awaken in the morning she would remember the entire dream.

Willow was sitting on her bed. She was too wired to sleep. She'd been so tired on the plane, but now that their in L.A. she just couldn't sleep. She was remembering the last time she'd been in L.A. There was something different in her memories. She kept trying to remember, but something, something had been changed. Someone was missing. She remembered a conversation with someone, someone who didn't like something… magic. She had forgotten someone who didn't like magic. She jumped off the bed and rushed over to her suitcase. Someone had altered her memories about the last time she was here in L.A. and she had a sneaky suspicion that it was Wolfram and Heart. After a few minutes of tossing her clothes around the room, she'd reached the bottom of the suitcase and the false bottom. She opened it up and started pulling out herbs, and candles, and a spell book. She picked up the book. It was one Tara had given her. She flipped to the chapter on mind alterations and began to read.

Xander was lying in his bed alone, again. It had been this way for six years, since Anya had passed in the fight over the hell mouth. He turned on the TV, flip, flip, flip, he flipped the channels until he landed on a news station. For some reason the news channels calmed him down now, he liked to know what was happening in the cities he was in at the time. The news anchor handed the news off to someone in the field. The camera showed a dead body covered by a white cloth. "The victim was a 21 year old girl, who left the bar at approximately 11:30 pm, and headed down this ally." The news reporter moved out of the way for the camera man to pan around the ally. The TV showed several police officers around a body and a second girl sitting down with two officers. There was a man in a black leather jacket that quickly left the shot. Xander could have sworn he recognized the figure. It looked like Angle's jacket and his build. The camera returned to the reporter. "The second victim, also a 21 year old girl has well according to her, she was saved by a man in black who stopped the attackers. The report is still coming in and I will keep you posted."

The camera went back to the anchor lady and Xander turned off the TV. "So, he is still alive. Now how did Buffy know?" Xander turned over and drifted off to sleep.

Dean had been driving for a few hours when he noticed the traffic ahead slowing down. He looked out the driver's window and noticed a lot of cars coming from the other direction. "What's going on? A wreck?" Dean shook Sam's arm until he woke up as the car came to a dead stop on I-10.

"What's going on Dean?" Sam asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Not sure." Dean leaned his head out of the window and noticed army personal going from car to car with flash lights. "Not goo Sammy. It's an army road block. What's going on?"

"Can we turn around and figure another way in?" Sam asked as he turned to look at the line of cars behind them, only to be met with the face of the Angle Castiel. He looked tired he wore his usual tan trench coat and unkempt white button up shirt with the tie hanging loose.

"No man, were boxed in." Dean turned around and nearly screamed as he was met by Castiel's worried expression. "Cass, Dude. A warning, you nearly gave me a heart attack."

"But I have come to warn you." Castiel looked around at the sounding cars. "This road is not safe."

"We noticed Cass, were stuck at an army check point." Sam pointed out.

"No, I mean the path you two are walking. Los Angelus is not a safe place for you."

"Yeah, well we were just driving threw on the way back to Bobbie's when Dean stopped to get gas and over herd two demons talking about a vampire that disrupted an Apocalypses." Sam turned back to face the front seat.

"I figure if this son of a bitch has them that scarred and pissed off at the same time we might want to check it out.

"What do you plan to do once you find him?" Cass asked as he watched two men in camouflaged fatigues approach the car.

"Don't know yet." Dean watched the two men approaching.

The two men reached the car at the same time, one of them knocked on the window and motioned for Dean to roll the window down. Dean slowly rolled the window down suddenly wishing they'd had more time to grab a fake FBI ID or something out of the glove box.

"Good evening sir, would you mind stepping out of the car please."

Dean knew he hadn't done anything wrong. "Why?" He asked while trying to figure out what was going on.

"Was there a wreck up ahead?" Sam asked as he leaned over towards the window.

"We not at liberty to discuss that sir, please step out of the car.

To both Dean and Sam's surprise Castiel stepped out of the car. He looked from one man to the other as worry washed across his face. The look he was giving them scarred the men and the second one pulled his semi automatic AK-47 up to his side. That had Dean and Sam out of the car in seconds. Dean jumped in front of Castiel as Sam began to move around the back of the car. The man with the gun moved it from Castiel's chest to Sam's face. "You stay where you are." The first man looked at his partner with his weapon pulled and then at the three men that had been in the car. He realized that something was off about them, but he didn't think that there weapons should be trained on them. He slowly reached for his radio, he clicked the transmit button and began trying to convenes his partner to lower his gun.

"Flanery, put the weapon down, they are civilians."

"No man, there's something wrong here." Flanery turned his head back towards the man with the radio and then quickly back to the three men he had his weapon trained on."

"Flanery, I will not say it again. Put the weapon down that's an order."

Suddenly Flanery began shaking with laughter. He dropped his face towards the ground and when he looked back up his eyes were black. Sam had been stopped at the trunk of the car and upon realizing that the man was a demon, he quickly opened the trunk.

On the other end of the radio was a guy sting at a switch board and when he heard someone telling Flanery to put his weapon down he notified his soupier. The soupier took off after the two men who were supposed to be turning the civilians around. He broke into a dean run, dodging in between parked cars and running over one desperately trying to reach the scene in time. When he saw Flanery with his weapon pointed at three men with his eyes black as coal, he knew he'd found what they'd been looking for. He ran up the front of another car and launched himself at Flanery from his blind side. He tucked and rolled as his body impacted Flanerly and then the ground quickly popping back up on his feet. The distraction gave Sam the time to pop the trunk and load the shotgun with slat rounds. Dean was trying to get Castiel to back up, but he just stood there. Flanery picked him self up off the asphalt still laughing. "Agent Finn, I forgot how hard up punch. How's the wife? Still possessed?" The demon let out another laugh as it turned towards the three men who'd at ne time been unarmed. "Tsk tsk tsk. Now then you must be the Winchester bothers, I was told to watch out for you. But who's the stiff? I mean come on he's kind of obvious."

Castiel took two steps forward tilted his head to the side and said. "I am an Angle of the lord and you will be reduced to nothing."

The demon burst out laughing again. "Really? By who? The slayer?" As the words left his mouth, a fist came up and punched him in the face sending him spiraling to the ground. The guy who'd leapt threw the air and tackled the demon had just knocked him to the ground once again. When the demon got back up, Sam shot him with the salted shot gun until a black plum of smoke left his body.

"Damn. I needed that demon." Fly boy turned around and faced the guy with the radio. "Solider, you're dismissed." The guy quickly saluted and turned on his heels and left the seen. Luckily all the people in the sounding cars had been removed from there cars before the incident occurred or Dean and Sam would really be in for it. "Nice shooting there."

"Thanks." Sam said as he kept the shot gun in his hands. Dean was sizing the guy up.

"So, you go everywhere with shotguns full of salt?" The question startled Dean and Sam. This guy knew that that was a demon and how to fight it. The guy looked over his shoulder back at a set of tents Dean hadn't noticed before. "I'm going to take that as a yes. I'm Agent Finn." The man extended his hand to Dean. Dean looked to the man and then to Castiel and Sammy.

"He is a solider for the side of light." Castiel tilted his head as he looked at Agent Finn. "How long have you been fighting?"

"How…How…"

"Did he know? Sam had lowered the gun and placed it back in the trunk. He was walking up to the side of Cass and Dean. "I thought we covered that part."

Agent Finns eyes darted back and forth between the man with the smug look, the confused tax accountant, and Sasquatch. "Ok, he's an Angle. But who are you two?"

"How much do you know about demons?" Sam asked.

"Dude Sammy, shut the trap man." Dean turned to look at Sammy.

Agent Finn burst out laughing as a smirk spread across his face. "You'd be surprised with how much I know. Let's just say the government has been aware of their presence for some time, like since the Second World War. At one point they even had a few teams fighting them. Of course what I just said is classified and can not be repeated."

"What?" Dean had a look of shock spread across his face before he quickly hid it behind a mask of anger.

"Look, I can't explain any of it to you with out running the risk of being court marshaled again, so take it for what it is and move on."

"So, you know what that was?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that's what the road block was for. We've been chasing that guy all across the country. He started something of a riot over in Florida, but that's been taken care of."

"By you and your team?" Dean asked as skepticism spread into his voice.

"No, the slayer and her army took out the problem. We did not make it in time to even watch. Hey, if you're an angle then maybe you met her. I mean she has died I think it's three times now. She did say she spent a month in heaven after one of her apocalypses took her out, although she was talking in riddles so I'm not to sure." Agent Finn babbled on until he realized he'd lost the guys back at the beginning of his ramble. "Ok, so that probably made no sense to you guys huh?"

"I got to slayer, Dean you said those were a myth." Sammy looked over to Dean.

"Well we thought angles were a myth, so until I see one with my own two eyes I'm going with myth. Now what about spending a month in heaven, cause man that I caught."

"Hey, I'm not sure on the details. All I know is a hell god came to town and opened a hell mouth. After she killed the hell god, she had to close the hell mouth so she jumped into it. Her friends decided that they needed her back."

"So what they called the one eight hundred get my friend out of heaven free hot line?" Dean snapped.

"Actually no, one of her friends is a witch, a very powerful witch. She pulled her out."

"Are you serious? A witch? Where'd she get that kind of power?" Sam was getting a little anxious.

"Hey, I've got no clue. I only joined their group for a couple of months when they tried balancing hunting things and college at the same time. But that doesn't really matter, why are you guys headed to L.A.?"

"A hunt." Dean sent Sammy a look that said keep your mouth shut.

"Figures, the town is crawling with things to hunt. Anything in particular, or just anything you can find?"

"Does it matter?" Sam sent the look back at Dean.

"Well, that depends. If it's something specific, there's a group that could help if you needed it, although he might find it a bit amusing."

"Amusing, why would he find it amusing?" Sam asked

"Because his name is Angel, and if I were you I would not go to meet him guns a blazing if you catch my drift. Besides if you killed him Buffy would send her army after you."

"Who's Buffy?" Dean asked

"The slayer, look you have to get passed this check point undetected, because if anyone else had come onto this scene you would have been royally screwed."

"How do we do that?"

Agent Finn looked around for a few seconds then turned back towards them. "Get back in your car and slowly follow me."

Dean, Sam, and Castiel returned to the comfort of the Impala and Dean slowly began to follow Agent Finn as he walked off the highway and out into the desert. After about five minutes Agent Finn stopped and approached the window of the Impala. He waited as Dean rolled the window down.

"If you keep going north for about another ten minutes and then turn west back towards the interstate then you should be far enough past the road block. I have to return to my post. If you do go looking for Angel, Tell him you ran into Riley and he figured you guys could help." Agent Finn turned back the way he'd come and disappeared into the night.

"Ok, that has to be one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to us." Dean said as he began driving in the direction Agent Finn had pointed them in.

Once the Impala pulled back onto the highway, Sam turned around in the back seat to check if anyone was following them. Seeing no one he turned back around and leaned in towards Dean and Castiel "So, do you think we can trust him?"

Castiel turned back to face Sam. "He was a warrior of God, he can be trusted."

"Ok, but how do you know that?" Sam asked

"I just do." Castiel turned and looked out the passenger window as Dean entered the outskirts of town.

A few minutes later, Dean pulled into a cheap motel and went to get a room. As he was returning to the Impala to tell Sam and Castiel the room number and to get his bags, a scantly clad prostitute came running out of a near by room screaming at the top of her lungs. She hit Dean, fell to the ground jumped up and was gone before Sam or Castiel could get out of the Impala. Dean noticing that her neck was bleeding ran into the room she'd come from followed by Sam and Castiel. The first thing they saw was a vampire, his face was covered in blood and a second prostitute dean on the floor at his feet. Before Dean or Sam could reach for one of the many weapons they kept hidden on their bodies, the vampire turned to dust. Behind the dusted vampire stood a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He had shaggy brown hair that was just a little bit shorter than Sam's. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with some random emo looking design on the front, and some black jeans. The determined look dropped from the boys face when he saw the three men in the room. It was replaced by a smile that sent chills up their spins. The young man leaned down very slowly as if testing them to see if they would stop him. He picked up a miniature battle axe and tucked it onto his back under his shirt. The wooden stake in his hand was quickly returned to his wrist where several more stakes were strapped on. His eyes glanced over Dean and Sam and settled on Castiel as if he knew he wasn't human.

As he stood up his eye darted over the two men, he could tell they were hunters. Not just by the way they carried them selves but also by their eyes like they'd seen things like this hundreds of times before. His eyes settled on the third man, he was not human and defiantly not demon. He tried placing the feeling that he was getting from the man that was dressed like a tax accountant but he was getting nothing until he remembered something he had tried desperately to forget. The tax accountant felt like her, before they'd known she was possessed. Back before the coma, back when he was confused and did not understand this world. Back when he didn't know any better. She had become what his father referred to as a higher being, or an angel, a real one, not some demon claiming to be one to scare others away. So, if he felt like her, then he too must be an angel, but did the two hunters know that? His eyes returned to the two hunters, they were in defensive positions much like his. They looked a bit confused, probably because some random kid just dusted a vamp, and that's what they do. The young man returned his stake to his wrist with the others and watched as the hunter's eyes followed the movement of the stake. "So, two hunters and what ever you are," He indicated to the tax accountant, "this is interesting." He looked at his watch two a.m. he still had time to hit some other hot spots before the sun came up and the evil went to bed. "This is very interesting."

He turned to leave out a broken window in the bathroom. "Hey, what's your name?" The Sasquatch asked.

The young man turned back to face them. "It's Connor, and I don't like it when higher beings start messing with me or my family. It gets… messy, so back off." He indicated the tax accountant once again before turning back towards the window.

"Well, ah Connor, this here is my brother Dean, and I'm Sam." He pointed to the other hunter and then himself. "That's Castiel." He pointed to the tax accountant. "How did you know we were hunters?"

Connor turned back towards them. "It's kind of obvious, in the way you carry yourselves, and your eyes."

Castiel took a step forward. "How did you know?" He tilted his head sideways as if confused.

"What? That you're not from this plan of existence?" Connor looked as if he was remembering something painful before he continued, "You smell like her."

"Dude, Cass what is he talking about?" Sam and Dean looked to Castiel waiting for him to clarify.

"I am not sure." Castiel tilted his head once again.

Connor took another good sniff of the angel. "I take it back you smell different. She smelled more… pure, you have a similar smell, but it's not the same. It's from the same place though. That rules out powers… hum…"

Connor seemed to be musing over something. "Powers? How do you know of them?" Castiel's look of confusion suddenly changed into a look of slight terror.

"Them, lets just say I wouldn't be here if it weren't for their interference." Connor seemed to shift his weight out of habit or maybe boredom.

"If the Powers are here then we are in danger." Castiel turned to Dean. "We must leave immediately."

"Whoa, Cass we just got here, and we haven't stopped the thing we came here to stop."

Castiel shifted his eyes between Sam and Dean. "We have to leave before they find us."

"What the Powers? Don't worry about them. They don't come down here much; they like to stay out of things as much as possible. Although when it comes to apocalypses they sometimes decide to do something." Connor seemed lost in thought once again.

"What are the Powers?" Sam had a look of complete confusion on his face. "Cass, man you're starting to scare me with this whole run for the hills thing."

"Do you remember the cupid?"

"Yeah, he was naked and all into the love for everyone." Dean snapped.

"Powers are nothing like the cupid. They are of the Second Sphere which works as heavenly governors. The Powers are the bearers of conscience and the keepers of history. They are also the warrior angels created to be completely loyal to God. Lucifer was the chief of the Powers before he fell. Their duty is to oversee the distribution of power among humankind, hence their name. So, you see if they are here, we should not be."

"Hey, I thought the thing you put on us would keep them from seeing us." Dean was becoming frustrated with Castiel.

"They should."

"Hey, if you guys are still in town tomorrow, there's this house that's supposed to be haunted. I'm supposed to go check it out, but I have never actually dealt with a ghost."

"You want us to help you with a ghosty?" Dean suddenly became very excited with the prospect of a hunt.

"Um, yeah. I usually deal with things more corporeal. The rest of the team, well some of them have dealt with ghosts, but they refuse to do it, which is really annoying because they're the ones doing the whole repenting thing."

"So they dumped the ghost hunt on you? Why?" Sam seemed a little stricken that someone would just dump a hunt on someone else.

"They know the ghost, or knew the person. She didn't like my dad to much, and my uncle lets just say he's not dumb enough to try to put her to rest without letting the daughter know first." Connor relaxed a little and began to pace back and forth.

"So, they just sent you to do it instead?" Dean was becoming suspicious.

"Yeah, if I solved the problem and it got back to the daughter then my dad and uncle can clam they knew nothing about it, look it's getting late and I have several other places to hit before the night is over. I have work in the morning, if you guys want in on the hunt meet me at the Starbucks down the street at noon, that's when I get off." Connor turned and leapt out the broken window and into the night.

Dean and Sam turned to face Castiel, "So should we trust him?"

"We have no other choice, besides he has something for you to hunt." Castiel turned and began walking towards the room Dean had gotten them for the night.

Willow had been up for several hours now. She had determined the general time frame of when her memories had been changed. It was shortly after she'd left L.A. with Faith in tow, so maybe Faith's memory had been messed with too. She'd called Faith and determined that what ever she'd forgotten, Faith had also forgotten. She then thought about everything she'd done while in L.A. Most of it was fuzzy because it was so long ago, but then again her memory was never fuzzy, which meant something had been changed. Willow had read the whole chapter about mind alteration twice before she decided to do anything. She eventually decided that if knowing was half the battle, she wanted to know incase it had something to do with their current mission. So after an hour of chanting, she'd managed to restore her memories and she was now curled up in a ball trying to sort them out. She knew Angel had a son, she knew Faith kicked his ass because he was a little gungho about killing Angelus. She knew he was raise by Holtz, and he was now dead. And she knew someone was pulling Angel's strings behind the scenes. The timing of her returning to L.A. and Angel showing up with the amulet was also troubling. The only place she could think of that would have known about the amulet was Wolfram and Heart. Angel showing up with the amulet, taking the job there and her and Faith forgetting about Connor was too many coincidences to actually be a coincidence. So if Connor went off the deep end for some reason, which would have put Wolfram and Heart in a position with Angel to fix what ever Connor, did which meant that they could have forced Angel to work there and he wasn't evil like Giles thought. Willow's brain was running a mile a minute as things began to make a lot of sense. Slowly her eyes began to droop she turned and looked at the alarm clock it was 3:45 a.m., she turned over and drifted off to sleep.


	2. Forgotten Memories

A few minutes later, Dean pulled into a cheap motel and went to get a room. As he was returning to the Impala to tell Sam and Castiel the room number and to get his bags, a scantly clad prostitute came running out of a near by room screaming at the top of her lungs. She hit Dean, fell to the ground jumped up and was gone before Sam or Castiel could get out of the Impala. Dean noticing that her neck was bleeding ran into the room she'd come from followed by Sam and Castiel. The first thing they saw was a vampire, his face was covered in blood and a second prostitute dean on the floor at his feet. Before Dean or Sam could reach for one of the many weapons they kept hidden on their bodies, the vampire turned to dust. Behind the dusted vampire stood a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He had shaggy brown hair that was just a little bit shorter than Sam's. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with some random emo looking design on the front, and some black jeans. The determined look dropped from the boys face when he saw the three men in the room. It was replaced by a smile that sent chills up their spins. The young man leaned down very slowly as if testing them to see if they would stop him. He picked up a miniature battle axe and tucked it onto his back under his shirt. The wooden stake in his hand was quickly returned to his wrist where several more stakes were strapped on. His eyes glanced over Dean and Sam and settled on Castiel as if he knew he wasn't human.

As he stood up his eye darted over the two men, he could tell they were hunters. Not just by the way they carried them selves but also by their eyes like they'd seen things like this hundreds of times before. His eyes settled on the third man, he was not human and defiantly not demon. He tried placing the feeling that he was getting from the man that was dressed like a tax accountant but he was getting nothing until he remembered something he had tried desperately to forget. The tax accountant felt like her, before they'd known she was possessed. Back before the coma, back when he was confused and did not understand this world. Back when he didn't know any better. She had become what his father referred to as a higher being, or an angel, a real one, not some demon claiming to be one to scare others away. So, if he felt like her, then he too must be an angel, but did the two hunters know that? His eyes returned to the two hunters, they were in defensive positions much like his. They looked a bit confused, probably because some random kid just dusted a vamp, and that's what they do. The young man returned his stake to his wrist with the others and watched as the hunter's eyes followed the movement of the stake. "So, two hunters and what ever you are," He indicated to the tax accountant, "this is interesting." He looked at his watch two a.m. he still had time to hit some other hot spots before the sun came up and the evil went to bed. "This is very interesting."

He turned to leave out a broken window in the bathroom. "Hey, what's your name?" The Sasquatch asked.

The young man turned back to face them. "It's Connor, and I don't like it when higher beings start messing with me or my family. It gets… messy, so back off." He indicated the tax accountant once again before turning back towards the window.

"Well, ah Connor, this here is my brother Dean, and I'm Sam." He pointed to the other hunter and then himself. "That's Castiel." He pointed to the tax accountant. "How did you know we were hunters?"

Connor turned back towards them. "It's kind of obvious, in the way you carry yourselves, and your eyes."

Castiel took a step forward. "How did you know?" He tilted his head sideways as if confused.

"What? That you're not from this plan of existence?" Connor looked as if he was remembering something painful before he continued, "You smell like her."

"Dude, Cass what is he talking about?" Sam and Dean looked to Castiel waiting for him to clarify.

"I am not sure." Castiel tilted his head once again.

Connor took another good sniff of the angel. "I take it back you smell different. She smelled more… pure, you have a similar smell, but it's not the same. It's from the same place though. That rules out powers… hum…"

Connor seemed to be musing over something. "Powers? How do you know of them?" Castiel's look of confusion suddenly changed into a look of slight terror.

"Them, lets just say I wouldn't be here if it weren't for their interference." Connor seemed to shift his weight out of habit or maybe boredom.

"If the Powers are here then we are in danger." Castiel turned to Dean. "We must leave immediately."

"Whoa, Cass we just got here, and we haven't stopped the thing we came here to stop."

Castiel shifted his eyes between Sam and Dean. "We have to leave before they find us."

"What the Powers? Don't worry about them. They don't come down here much; they like to stay out of things as much as possible. Although when it comes to apocalypses they sometimes decide to do something." Connor seemed lost in thought once again.

"What are the Powers?" Sam had a look of complete confusion on his face. "Cass, man you're starting to scare me with this whole run for the hills thing."

"Do you remember the cupid?"

"Yeah, he was naked and all into the love for everyone." Dean snapped.

"Powers are nothing like the cupid. They are of the Second Sphere which works as heavenly governors. The Powers are the bearers of conscience and the keepers of history. They are also the warrior angels created to be completely loyal to God. Lucifer was the chief of the Powers before he fell. Their duty is to oversee the distribution of power among humankind, hence their name. So, you see if they are here, we should not be."

"Hey, I thought the thing you put on us would keep them from seeing us." Dean was becoming frustrated with Castiel.

"They should."

"Hey, if you guys are still in town tomorrow, there's this house that's supposed to be haunted. I'm supposed to go check it out, but I have never actually dealt with a ghost."

"You want us to help you with a ghosty?" Dean suddenly became very excited with the prospect of a hunt.

"Um, yeah. I usually deal with things more corporeal. The rest of the team, well some of them have dealt with ghosts, but they refuse to do it, which is really annoying because they're the ones doing the whole repenting thing."

"So they dumped the ghost hunt on you? Why?" Sam seemed a little stricken that someone would just dump a hunt on someone else.

"They know the ghost, or knew the person. She didn't like my dad to much, and my uncle lets just say he's not dumb enough to try to put her to rest without letting the daughter know first." Connor relaxed a little and began to pace back and forth.

"So, they just sent you to do it instead?" Dean was becoming suspicious.

"Yeah, if I solved the problem and it got back to the daughter then my dad and uncle can clam they knew nothing about it, look it's getting late and I have several other places to hit before the night is over. I have work in the morning, if you guys want in on the hunt meet me at the Starbucks down the street at noon, that's when I get off." Connor turned and leapt out the broken window and into the night.

Dean and Sam turned to face Castiel, "So should we trust him?"

"We have no other choice, besides he has something for you to hunt." Castiel turned and began walking towards the room Dean had gotten them for the night.

Willow had been up for several hours now. She had determined the general time frame of when her memories had been changed. It was shortly after she'd left L.A. with Faith in tow, so maybe Faith's memory had been messed with too. She'd called Faith and determined that what ever she'd forgotten, Faith had also forgotten. She then thought about everything she'd done while in L.A. Most of it was fuzzy because it was so long ago, but then again her memory was never fuzzy, which meant something had been changed. Willow had read the whole chapter about mind alteration twice before she decided to do anything. She eventually decided that if knowing was half the battle, she wanted to know incase it had something to do with their current mission. So after an hour of chanting, she'd managed to restore her memories and she was now curled up in a ball trying to sort them out. She knew Angel had a son, she knew Faith kicked his ass because he was a little gungho about killing Angelus. She knew he was raise by Holtz, and he was now dead. And she knew someone was pulling Angel's strings behind the scenes. The timing of her returning to L.A. and Angel showing up with the amulet was also troubling. The only place she could think of that would have known about the amulet was Wolfram and Heart. Angel showing up with the amulet, taking the job there and her and Faith forgetting about Connor was too many coincidences to actually be a coincidence. So if Connor went off the deep end for some reason, which would have put Wolfram and Heart in a position with Angel to fix what ever Connor, did which meant that they could have forced Angel to work there and he wasn't evil like Giles thought. Willow's brain was running a mile a minute as things began to make a lot of sense. Slowly her eyes began to droop she turned and looked at the alarm clock it was 3:45 a.m., she turned over and drifted off to sleep.


	3. The Not So Haunting

Dean awoke the next morning to cartoons playing on the TV; he rolled over to drown them out as he grunted to Sammy to turn them off. When he opened his eyes because Sammy was obviously ignoring him, he was met with Sammy sitting on the edge of his bed flipping the channels. Sammy stopped when he got to a news station; he stood up and went to the kitchen table. Sitting on the table was a large assortment of shot guns, hand guns, and hunting knives. Sammy took a seat at the table and began cleaning a sawed off shot gun. Dean rolled over desperately trying to drown out the sounds of the TV with sleep. Once Sammy finished cleaning the shotgun, he placed it in a large duffle bag. He stood up and turned the TV off on his way to his bed side table where his phone and wallet were. He quickly scribbled a note to Dean and then left. Dean rolled over once again and picked up the note.

Went to get breakfast, be back soon. Have Phone.

Dean slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and then went to the bathroom to take a shower. When Sammy returned with breakfast, Dean was busy brushing his teeth. Sammy cleaned off some space on the table and set out the donuts and coffee he'd managed to scrounge up.

"Dean I found some donuts and coffee." Sam picked up another gun and began cleaning it as Dean stuck his head out the door into the room.

"Got any chocolate?" Dean asked as he ducked his head back in the bathroom to spit. He came out a few minutes later with a towel hanging around his neck. He walked up to the table and sat down as Sammy handed him a chocolate donut.

"That's the last one, and before you ask they were out of pie, so I got you this." Sammy pulled a foil wrapped object out of the bag of breakfast goodies and handed it to Dean.

"What is this?" Dean unwrapped the foil to reveal a bacon cheese omelet. "Dude, an omelet? Really? Where's the grease? Tell me you at least got ketchup for this thing."

Sam tossed a handful of ketchup packages at Dean. "Here."

Dean took a sip of his coffee before quickly spitting it back into the cup. "Dude Sammy that's about the worst coffee I've ever tasted."

Sam popped the top to his coffee and looked into the cup, then he gave it a sniff before replacing the lid and tossing it into the trash. "Well when it doesn't even smell like coffee, you know there's something wrong with it." As Sam turned back around he was met by Castiel standing slightly behind Dean.

"Aren't we supposed to be meeting someone today?" Castiel asked.

"Yeah, and we might as well go now and get some real coffee, because this stuff smells and tastes like shit." Dean tossed his cup into the trash and grabbed the duffle bag that was now fun of cleaned weapons and his jacket before heading towards the door. He was quickly joined by Sam and Castiel as the three of them headed towards Dean Impala.

Buffy awoke to the alarm going off. She rolled over towards Dawn's bed only to find it empty. As she took in the new surroundings, she slowly remembered the plane trip to L.A. Then the dream she'd had the night before came back to her. She vaguely remembered wondering through her old house, and for some odd reason Spike was there. At first she wasn't sure why he was in her dream, but then she remembered every night since she'd discovered that both her boys were alive either Spike or Angle had been in everyone. She shook the dream away and got out of bed. As her feet hit the floor the bed room door opened and Dawn walked into the room with a pair of shoes in her hands. "Oh, Buffy you're awake. The alarms been going off for an hour and a half, I was coming in to turn it off again. If you want the rest of the gang and I were going to go down to the restaurant next to the lobby for breakfast. If you hurry you can probably get ready before Willow." Dawn dropped the shoes on the floor and began putting the on as she talked. Buffy walked over to her suite case and pulled out a pair of tight jeans and a tube top, before looking through another bag of shoes for the shoes that matched the tube top.

Fifteen minutes later, Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and Xander were sitting down stairs in the Diner on the first floor of the hotel. Once they were seated by the waitress, a waiter came by their table and gave them their menus and took they drink orders. Xander was the last to order his drink, he ordered an orange juice, and before the waiter left he handed Xander a newspaper. "Thank you, sir." Xander said before opening the newspaper. He skipped straight to the obituaries mostly out of habit, as he did this Buffy got a good look at the front page. It said something about someone being seriously injured in a haunted house, but the headline wasn't what peaked her interest and to be honest she wasn't even sure what Xander had been talking about in the news paper. What peaked her interest on the front page was the picture, it was of the house she'd lived in when she lived in L.A. Once she recognized the picture of her house, she grabbed the front page out of Xander's hands. "Hey, I was reading that. Come on Buffy give it back, I'll let you see it when I'm done reading the o'bits."

Buffy's brain slowly comprehended what Xander was saying, and once she understood. She looked up to see everyone staring at her like she was crazy. The waiter showed up with their coffees and orange juice at that precise moment. He placed the drinks on the table and left. Once he was out of ear shot, Buffy spoke. "Sorry Xan, it's just that I saw my old house on the front page and wanted to know what it was about. She quickly laid out the paper on the table and began skimming the article. "From what this say's, a little over five years ago, the house began acting odd. The owners at the time thought nothing of it when things started to go missing, then they started to see a figure of a women. They thought it might be a ghost of the last owner but found that no one had died in the house. That seemed to settle them down until blood began to appear on the walls telling them to get out. It was at that point that they moved out and sold the house. The next owner had the house for three months before the owner claims a floating knife began cutting up all the baked goods in the house. He sold the house, and the current owner is trying to sell it after his lawnmower chased him down while it was still in the box. And yesterday about the time we arrived in town, a prospective buyer of the house fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Funny thing is it's a one story house. There are no stairs, and the house has been completely empty for weeks, so there was nothing for her to trip on." As Buffy finished giving the group the low down on her former house, the waiter returned with their meal.

As the waiter left, Xander picked up his silverware, "Well Buffy, looks like the shopping trip you had planed will have to wait cause you have one pissed off house that need a but kicken."

"Um, Xander houses don't have butts to kick, and besides no one had died in the house, so how can it be haunted?" Dawn asked as she dug into her eggs.

"I don't know, but I had a dream about the house last night, that's why I was kind of unnerved when I saw it on the front page. What kind of news paper is this anyway, Xander?" Buffy had quickly decided not to bring up the topic of who else had been in her dreams and deflected to the dream towards Xander.

"The National Inquisitor, why?"

"Nothing, just didn't seem like something to go on the front page of a news paper."

"Hey just because it's not creditable doesn't mean their wrong, it means their covering the weird, our kind of weird." Xander put the newspaper down. "So are we checking out Buffy's haunted house?

Half an hour before noon, Dean, Sam, and Castiel entered the Starbucks down the street from their motel. Dean pointed put an unoccupied table and Castiel took a seat at the table while Dean and Sam ordered their coffee. As Dean and Sam waited for their coffee a waiters who was cleaning tables approached Castiel at the table. "Sir, do you need anything?" She asked politely.

"My body does not require sustenance." Castiel answered as Dean and Sam approached the table and took their seats.

As the waiters left the table Connor came out from behind the counter. "Hey, I managed to get off a few minutes early, hang on a minute and I'll get my stuff." Connor walked into the back room and returned a few minutes later with his jacket in one hand and a manila folder in the other. He took a seat at the table and opened the folder. There were pictures of the house, some records of past owners, their pictures, and some other random information.

"So, who's the ghost?" Dean asked as he began shifting through the information. Sam leaned over to look at a picture of a woman with blond hair and green eyes. The picture was worn, like it had been in someone's wallet for many years.

"We're not entirely sure. My father seems to think that it's his ex-girlfriends mother. Although no one has physically died in the house."

"Physically, so one of the owners has died, just not in the house?"

"Yeah, be careful with that picture, my father would kill me if anything happened to it." Connor looked up with a guarded caution to Sam. Sam put the picture back on the table. Connor picked up a different picture of a woman and put it next to the one of the blond girl. "These two have died in the last 10 years." Connor pointed to the blond women. "This is Buffy. According to my dad, she's died three times in the last ten years that he knows of." He took a second to take a breath. "The first time she died, she drowned and her friend did CPR to resuscitate her. The second time she jumped into a dimensional rift to the hell mouth where she lived to close it." Dean and Sam's jaws dropped as Connor continued. "Then third time she died, we're not entirely sure what happened. What we do know is that she was fighting a war in Paris, and something was trying to create a second hell mouth to replace the one she destroyed. We know this because what ever it was pulled my dad and his team from their ballet against Wolfram and Heart. They don't remember anything. They woke up seven days later back at the hotel. Since they were pulled from their battle Wolfram and Heart took vengeance on them by bringing forth a horde of demons and setting them loss on the city. Wile the team was busy with the horde of demons Wolfram and Heart created a hell mouth here."

"Wait, I thought Wolfram and Heart was a law firm." Sam stopped Connor.

"It is, Wolfram and Heart is an inter-dimensional evil law firm." Connor answered.

"I almost took an internship there five years ago. Dean If you hadn't have come and gotten me that weekend I would have gone to interview at the branch here in L.A." Sam turned to Dean.

"Let me get this straight, you left me and dad and the hunt so you could go to college and get a law degree and work for a demonic evil law firm. That's messed up man."

"Five years ago my dad was running the law firm here, so you wouldn't have been working for someone evil. Although technically the Senior Partners are evil and they think they run the show so…" Connor slipped off into a ramble. "Anyway, back to business. This is Joyce, Buffy's mother." Connor pointed to the second picture of a brunette woman. "She died in 2001 from a brain aneurism."

"Brain aneurism? That's not exactly a violent death, are you sure it's her?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, were positive it's her." Connor looked up at Dean. "The haunting of the house started two weeks after she died. The weird thing is that she died in a hospital bed in Sunnydal California, so what is she tied to here in Los Angelus?"

"It could be anything, something she left behind when they moved, hair, clothes. We'll have to search the house to figure it out." Dean answered.

"I do not mean to interrupt this conversation but that man has been staring at the back of your head for the last five minutes." Castiel broke into the conversation as he shifted in his seat from the uncomfortable glare the man was sending Connor's way.

Dean turned around to look at the man Castiel had indicated. The man had turned around so his back was to their table. He had on a black leather coat that reached his feet almost hiding his heavy leather boots. "I'll be right back." Connor said as he stood up and approached the man. They stood at the coffee counter with their backs turned to Dean, Sam, and Castiel for a little over five minutes before Connor returned. "Well, it seems that our job just became a little harder, the slayer is in town." Connor said as he retook his seat.

"So does that mean she's going to show up at the house?" Sam asked as he shifted in his seat.

"Probably not, chances are she doesn't know her mother's a ghost or that she's haunting her old house." Connor answered.

"What makes you so sure it's her anyway? It's not like the chick's saying who she is."

Connor looked at the three carefully. "The Powers send visions of people who need help to my father and his team so they can save them and repent and all that crap."

"Visions, like brain splitting, ear ringing, body convulsing visions?" Sam asked.

"No, like a walk through the park visions, yes brain splitting, ear ringing, body convulsing, visions. That's the only kind they send, and it's enough to kill a normal human in a few very short months." Connor looked a little irritated. "How'd you know that anyway?" Connor asked.

"I used to get them. A few years ago, back before things started getting weird, well I mean weirder… And they really didn't lead us to helpless people in need of saving, more like other physics who wanted to kill me…" Sam tittered off in his ramblings as he sipped his coffee.

"Dude, Sammy, those freaky visions of yours scared me half to death, every time you got one we nearly died." Dean's attempt at making his brother feel a little better seemed to come out better in his mind than it was when he opened his big mouth.

Castiel was sitting very still, well stiller than normal, like he was in shock, Dean was about to ask him if something was wrong when he spoke. "I do not understand. The Powers talk to lower beings? They did not like talking to the barracks, why would they talk to lower beings?"

"It's just snippets of people in danger, at first they sent them to him through a guide, but he died and passed them on to Cordy, who ended up in a coma and somehow passed them on to him, placing him back on his path or whatever." Connor spitted this out with venom laced in his voice.

"So, he saw Joyce's ghost in the house?" Sam asked.

"Yep."

"Question, you said he got visions of people in trouble, so who's in trouble?" Dean asked.

"I would assume it would be Joyce since all he saw was her asking for help." Connor answered.

A few seconds later Castiel spoke again. "That man is approaching us." The man in the black trench coat was in fact walking towards the group. Dean got a good look at his face this time, he had platinum blonde hair and a small cut in his left eye brow. He was walking like a predator, Dean then realized he was a vampire. As he reached for one of his many weapons in his jacket, Connor looked over his shoulder to see the man standing behind him.

"I'm coming." Connor stared blankly at the vampire. "I don't care what Peaches says. I knew her, and she was trying to send me a message in that vision of his. He's not the only Champion around here."

"What kind of message." Connor was suddenly intrigued.

"Remember when she started spouting the lines from that soap opera, All my Children?" the vampire asked.

"Yeah, you were the only one that knew it was a soap opera." Connor answered while Dean and Sam tried to hold back laughter, Castiel was very confused as to why the demon before him was not cowering in fear, but blatantly ignoring the Angel.

"I was the one who watched Joyce, and Dawn while the Slayer was out saving the world and doing her job. I was the one that had to explain things to her every time she forgot who she was, where she was, who Buffy was, everything. The point is the line's she was quoting was from the last episode she watched. She made me promise that if she came back as anything, I would take care of it. We took care of it when Dawn tried to bring her back as a Zombie, so I think I will continue to keep the only promise I made to the woman. Though, why she's haunting her old house I have no bloody clue."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked as he tightened his grip on the silver dagger under the table.

The vampire took a long look at the three men sitting with Connor. "So, you're the Winchester Boys hum, Dean and Sam right? You better keep your heads down mate's, the demons round here figure out who you are and the ghost of the slayer's mom is going to be the least of your worries."

"Is that a threat?" Sam asked politely as he prepared for a confrontation.

The tension at the table seemed to thicken until the vampire spoke again. "What? No, I'm just saying of they catch wind you are here, don't expect help from us… much. We've got our hands full what with the slayer showing up and all. The demons are starting to team up just for the prospect of going after her. Not like they could actually kill her. Anyway Connor, are we going to do this or what?" The vampire turned to face Connor.

"Yeah, just didn't want them going into the situation with a million questions that might need answering." Connor responded.

"Right, well mate's I'm going to take care of some stuff… Maybe steal one of Peaches cars, probably the Viper. I'll meet you guys at the house in an hour." Then the vampire stood and walked through the employee's only door and was gone.

"He was a vampire." Castiel quit bluntly.

"Are you asking a question, or making a point?" Connor asked.

"Usually they are terrified to be in my presence, my powers must be more depleted than I thought." Castiel's face changed to that of utter shock.

"Nah, that's Spike, nothing scares him much, well besides Buffy and Illyria the Hell God." Connor stated as he grabbed the folder of information and his jacket. "You guys coming?"

"I'm confused, are we working with demons again? Cause last time that didn't turn out so well." Sam muttered as he grabbed his jacket and followed Connor.

"If we want to gank the ghost I guess we play by their rules." Dean answered under his breath as all three followed Connor out of the Starbucks.

As the car arrived, Buffy was staring out of the window at her old neighborhood. She was shocked at how much it had changed. What once had been a nice neighborhood on the good side of town was now a rundown neighborhood that was barely on the good side of town. Xander pulled the car up to the house and looked out Willow's window at the front door. "So, do we go in?" he asked.

Buffy glanced at the open house sign in the yard and then to the door that was standing open. So far it had been just like her dream. She slowly opened the car door and grabbed her purse as she exited the car.

"I guess so." Dawn said as she grabbed her nag and jumped out of the car to catch up with Buffy.

Xander looked at Willow ass they both exited the car and caught up with Buffy. They entered the house and began to look around the empty house. Buffy wandered off as Xander and Willow stood in the door way of the empty house. The realtor came out of the kitchen and noticed two people standing by the door and moved towards them to show them the house. By now Dawn had followed Buffy down a hall way to her old room. Buffy was standing in the closet looking at the back wall. "Are you ok?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, I just wanted to get something. Watch the door." Dawn stood in the doorway watching for anyone heading down the hallway. She noticed two men leaving the master bedroom and heading back towards the living room. She looked back at Buffy, she was running her hand over the back wall and it popped open. Buffy pulled a duffle bag out of her purse and began to fill it with the contents of the hiding space. The first thing she pulled out was a broken stake covered in cobwebs and dust. She put it back and grabbed another weapon. The second thing she pulled out was a sword with crusted jewels. She put the sword in the duffle bag. After a few minutes, she'd removed all the valuable weapons, replaced the panel and was standing in front of Dawn. As they left the bedroom they herd the sound of doors slamming shut. As they ran down the hallway to the living room they were met with the unthinkable. Spike was standing the in the middle of the living room. Suddenly the two men Dawn had seen earlier came out of the kitchen followed by a younger man.

"What's going on here?" the realtor asked as she tried to open the door.

"Look lady, I don't have a lot of time to explain this, but trust me. You need to come away from the door."The shorter of the two older men said.

Suddenly the lights began to flicker."Oh, no, not again." the realtor screamed. By now Buffy had pulled the bag of weapons she'd just retrieved off her shoulder while the realtor was shaking in fear.

"Miss it's going to be fine. What's coming back?" Buffy asked the realtor.

"It's a ghost" Spike answered. "Buffy, it's Joyce."

It took Buffy a few seconds to process what he'd just said. "Mom?"

The three men suddenly looked slightly terrified. Willow was staring at the youngest one. She remembered him. "Connor, what are you doing here?" She asked him.

The two other men looked from Connor to Willow wondering how she knew him. As the temperature in the room suddenly dropped and everyone began to see there breathe. The shorter man dropped a bag off his shoulder and pulled out a shotgun and a box of slat. He tossed the box of salt to the much taller Sasquatch looking man. The sasquatch began to spread the salt out in a circle. Buffy pushed Dawn into the circle with the realtor. "Dawn, stay."

Buffy opened the duffel bag she had and threw a sword to Xander "Buffy?" Buffy looked back towards Willow and Xander who were pointing behind her.

Buffy turned around and was met with the ghost of Joyce Summers. "Mom?" Buffy whispered. Joyce stood there for a few seconds before she flashed away. Buffy turned around "Where'd she go?" Buffy asked as Willow and Xander moved towards the center of the room.

"Here's a wacky question, what's in this room that doesn't belong?" Xander asked as he stepped inside the salt circle.

"Um, Joyce's ghost." Willow answered. "Why is she here? Is she mad about something? Is she mad at us?"

"I wasn't referring to Joyce, Willow, I was talking about the painting on the wall over there." Xander said as he pointed to a painting on the wall over the fire place. From their distance it looked like it was a painting of an epic battle and oddly enough the landscaping looked like hell itself had been the battle field.

"Painting? What painting?" the realtor asked. "This house has been empty for months, there's no." Xander pointed to the painting above the fire place. "painting" the realtor finished. "When did that get there?" She asked.

Buffy walked past the three men towards the painting. Spike followed her, "So, there's a mysterious painting that wasn't there before, what the bloody hell is going on?" he asked.

As Buffy and Spike reached the painting, Joyce appeared once again. "You needed to be warned." She spoke as she flashed like a ghost in a scary movie. "You have to be prepared, all of you." She turned towards the two older men. "The war to come is nothing like you've seen before."

"Um, we've seen some pretty bad stuff." The Sasquatch started to say but was cut of by the ghost.

"This will be worst than Satan and his brother's war." She turned back to Buffy. "Buffy, do you remember when I painted that?" Joyce asked her.

Buffy shook her head, she had no idea her mother even knew how to paint.

"I don't have much time here. It took a long time to get your attention. You have to be ready. You have to know." Joyce began to fade away. "You need the painting." She said as she disappeared. As soon as she was gone the front door and windows opened. The realtor sprinted out of the house screaming for dear life.

"Well that was anti-climatic. Connor, I thought it was a vengeful spirit." The shorter good looking man said to Connor.

"When did we ever say Joyce was a vengeful spirit?" Spike asked. "Ok, there was that one time she hit me over the head with that bloody axe, but I was evil then and totally deserved it." Spike began to mutter to him self.

"I'm not dreaming am I?" Buffy asked. The three men she did not know looked at her a little perplexed.

"Um, I'm gonna go with no Buffster." Xander answered.

"Ok, well then we need to call Giles, because I dream this last night." Buffy turned to face Spike and the three mysterious men.

"What like a Slayer prophecy dream?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, we have like 5 minutes before the realtor calls the cops." Buffy answered.

Willow grabbed her phone out of her purse and began dialing the number for the head watcher.

"So, what took you so long to come looking for me? Spike asked.

"What makes you think we came looking for you Spike? We could be searching for Angle." She eyed Spike for a second. "Giles was convinced that he'd reverted back to Angelus and had somehow dragged you along for the ride and therefore neither one of you could be trusted, so he swamped us with as many demons as he could. He even split us up over different continents."

"And you convinced him otherwise?" Spike asked.

"No, he thinks were in San Francisco having a reunion." Buffy answered. "Strange how there hasn't been an apocalypse since then."

"That would have been us love, we took out the Circle of the Black Thorne, they kept them on track."

"Long name much, it doesn't even sound evil." Buffy muttered.

"Hey, why am I in this painting? Your mother didn't even paint." Spike leaned forward to inspect the painting.

"Um, Spike, who are these guys?" Buffy had turned around and noticed the two men still in their fighting stances as if they would be attacked any moment.

"Oh, the kid is Connor, ask Angle about him. The other two are hunters the tall ones Sam and the short ones Dean, I think. Spike said all this with his eyes still glued to the painting.

Xander was standing next to Willow as she furiously argued with a receptionist on the other end of the line. He turned to her and took the phone from her. As he covered the speaker portion of the phone he turned to Willow. "Wills, calm down, you're letting your black show."

As he said this Willow seemed to realize that her hair had turned from red to black and her fingernails had began to grow. "Oops!" She squeaked.

Xander then began to deal with the receptionist on the other end of the line that did not seem to know what she was doing.

"I think I remember her painting this. I was like four. Dad had left on another business trip and mom lock herself away in her room and painted this. Every time he left, she worked on this. I went looking for it once, but I couldn't find it. She only pulled it out when he was gone. It was like she was possessed by something. She would stand there painting all day long, she missed work a lot because of it. I remember having a slayer nightmare one night and I went in her room because I was scarred, she was still painting. Her fingers were bleeding and she was still painting, she turned to look at me and her eyes were black. That scared me more than the dream. I didn't go near her room for two months."

"That's creepy Buffy, but this is creeper." Spike pointed to a part of the painting. "This style of painting was used in the 17th century. Angel would be able to tell which painter, cause you know he stalked them all. Bloody hell." Spike said as he looked closer. "Faith is in the painting too." Spike pointed her out to Buffy before he continued to inspect the painting.

Buffy leaned in close to inspect the painting with Spike. The first people she looked at where the three men, Connor, Dean and Sam. "Um, guys you are in the painting also." She said as she continued to look at it.

"What?" Dean asked as he pushed past Sam and approached the painting.

"Question. Since when do ghosts know things about people they didn't know when they were alive?" Sam turned towards Dean. "And where'd Cas go?"Sam seemed to realized that the Angel was no longer in the room.

"Don't know. Maybe Willow scared him." Spike said as he turned back towards Dawn, Willow, and Xander.

"Me scare someone? How am I intimidating?" Willow squeaked as she noticed Spike's smug look upon his face.

Suddenly a man appeared in the middle of the living room. "Um, who's the tax accountant?" Xander asked.

Castiel turned to the man with an eye patch and seemingly march towards him. "I am Castiel Angel of the Lord."

The man with an eye patch was desperately trying to hold back a fit of laughter. "Like the Angle of Thursday?" He asked. "That's rich."

"Um, Xander. It's never a good idea to piss off an Angel." Buffy said as she was still facing the painting on the wall.

"Are you sure that he's an Angel?" Xander asked.

"Yeah. Been to Heaven. I can tell." Buffy said as she pulled the painting off the wall.

Once the painting was off the wall, Buffy turned towards the group missing a zip lock bag with folded papers in it falling to the floor from behind the painting. Spike on the other hand noticed the falling papers and picked them up. "Hey this was behind the painting." Spike said. Suddenly the group heard the sounds of sirens in the distance and decided that they needed to move before the realtor flagged the cops down.

As they exited the house Spike and Connor reluctantly agreed that they should meet back up at their new base of operations.


	4. The Letter

Spike had somehow managed to get back into Angel's viper before catching fire, which if Buffy was honest with herself was an impressive feat. Sam, Dean, Connor, and the Angel Castile were following Spike in a 69' Impala, which if Buffy was honest with herself was the coolest car she'd ever seen. As the Scooby's loaded up the cops came racing around the corner. The realtor was sitting on the curb hyperventilating. Buffy carefully put the painting and the ziplock in the back of the car before jumping in and following the Viper and Impala. After driving around downtown Los Angeles for two hours, the Viper pulled into a seedy motel. The Impala followed and the men named Sam and Dean jumped out and ran into one of the rooms. Connor, if Buffy remembered the name right got out and walked over to their car. As he reached the driver's side window, Xander rolled it down.

"We're stopping here to grab their stuff. It'll make it easier if we're all in one place and don't have to regroup constantly." Connor said.

"Are we headed to the Hyperion Hotel? Cause I know where that is. We could go get our stuff and meet you guys there." Willow rambled off in one breath.

"Um, the Hyperion's gone. We lost it a few years back. We had to kind of rethink our strategy what with LA becoming a new hell mouth and all." Connor answered.

"Wait, LA's a hell mouth? How did we not pick up on that? There are no power readings, or surges, or anything else that would indicate that there's a hell mouth here." Willow began to panic.

"Wills, breath. It's ok." Xander half turned behind him to look at her. "Besides, we knew that the power source in Paris suddenly disappeared and the hell mouth they were trying to form there failed, there's no way we could have stopped them every time they tried to form one. Although they could have picked up the phone and given us a heads up."

As Connor stood there, the two men exited the motel room with several duffle bags thrown over their shoulders. They moved in sync as the pulled them off their shoulders and threw them into the trunk of the Impala.

"I have a question. Since when does Angel willingly work with hunters? Won't they like, I don't know try to kill both him and Spike on site?" Dawn asked from the back seat.

"Their Angel Castile has convinced them that it would be unwise to attempt that. He seems to at least have some clue as to what's going on." With that Connor returned to the Impala and the Viper took off towards the hotel the Scooby's were currently residing in.

"So how'd that conversation with Giles go?" Buffy asked dreading the answer.

"He was momentarily upset that we didn't just tell him we wanted to go to LA to search for Angel and Spike. He evidently thought you didn't want to go looking for them because you never said anything. And if he had known he would have at least sent someone here to either confirm or deny that he was evil." Xander answered.

"I meant about the dream." Buffy clarified.

"Oh, yeah. He's on the next flight out of the office. Seems even he wants to reunite the Scooby's." Xander answered.

They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and the Scooby's exited the car and hurried to their room to get their stuff. After a few minutes of Buffy coming out of the building with sever duffle bags and suitcases, Dean got tired of sitting in the car and followed Buffy to her room. When he poked his head in he was astounded by it. He'd never stayed in a hotel room this fancy. "So, what does it take to be able to afford this room? He asked as Dawn pushed past him and out the door.

Willow turned to him completely caught off guard by his appearance in the doorway as she threw some of her spell books into a suitcase. "Um, divert a few apocalypses." Willow responded.

Xander reentered the main living room with his one bag. "Have monetary backing and ten years of back pay does not hurt Willow."

"You mean you got someone to actually pay you for hunting?" Dean asked as Willow set another bag by the door for Buffy to take.

"Hunting?" Xander had a slight look of confusion on his face. "I don't think we've ever called it that, but sure."

"If you don't call it hunting, then what do you call it?" Dean asked as Buffy reentered the room with the last of her and Dawns bags.

"Surviving." She answered, as she picked up more bags. Dean moved out of her way and grabbed a few from the floor as the group left the hotel room.

As they entered the lobby Dawn was checking them out. The receptionist was very distraught that they were checking out so soon, after all they were paying for the most expensive suit in the hotel. Well that's what Dawn assumed she was distraught about. She quickly rethought that after they loaded the car because as soon as they were done and in the car, an explosion occurred in the room they had been in. Glass fell to the ground as the sound of the blast knocked windows out on the upper floors of the hotel. Spike had been sitting the Viper snoozing when the blast went off. So it was only natural that he hightail it away from the scene. And because the lead car took off at an incredible speed, Dean in the Impala followed so they would not get lost. And since Xander was following the Impala, he took off, which on the surveillance cameras surrounding the building looked suspicious to the police. So it was not surprising that when the FBI showed up, they took over the case, after all, it's not every day that several people from the FBI's most wanted list all thought to be dead suddenly shown up in the same place at the same time and an explosion occurs. Although to the investigators, none of the criminals had ever dealt with explosives, sure burning down a building or two but never explosives.

They were driving on the freeway, when Spike suddenly exited throwing both Dean and Xander off, the sun having set long ago. As they slowed down, Spike turned under the freeway and off the road to a gate. Beyond the gate was a service entrance to the sewers wide enough to get their cars threw. Spike got out of the car and unlocked the gate before driving threw and then locking the gate behind them. Once he was back in the Viper, he took off down the sewer. After a few minutes they came to what could best be described as a parking lot, although Buffy doubted it had ever been used as one before. There were lots of shiny expensive cars all parked along the wall of this open area that had four tunnels leading off in different directions. Spike parked the Viper and exited the car while everyone else pulled up.

"Man, why'd it have to be a sewer?" Dean asked.

"What Dean, afraid of getting more shape shifter skin on you?" Sam mocked.

"No, just when either one of us gets kidnapped we either end up in the sewers, or some creepy barn with hillbillies that want to eat us." Dean responded.

As they stood there with their duffle's thrown over their shoulder, they were surprised to find that the group they had somehow manage to pick up back at the house were leaning on their car with a bag a peace, and not nearly as many as Dean had seen them carry out of the hotel. Spike had gone over to the entrance where they'd come through and hit a button on the wall causing a giant iron fence to slide over the opening. That surprised both Dean and Sam, a demon using iron to keep other demons out.

As Spike led the group down one of the sewer hallways, Dean and Sam hung to the back of the group. "Dean, something's been bothering me." Dean looked at Sam as they walked silently telling him to continue. "That vampire from last night, have you ever seen one turn to dust before?"

Dean stopped and waited for the group to get farther ahead before he answered. "Only in those flashed I had when I was one." Dean dropped his head and continued walking. They quickly caught up to the rest of the group as Spike opened a door that was completely hidden in the wall.

Even though Spike was leading the group down the sewer, he still heard when the two hunters slowed down for their little chat. 'So, Dean was a vampire' Spike thought to himself. 'Maybe the prophesy wasn't about either of the two vampires.'

When the group entered the room on the other side of the Sewer, they were pleasantly surprised that they were not met with more sewer, but rather what appeared to be a living room or as close to a living room as one could get in a sewer. There were a couple of couches scattered throughout the room, a few floor lights, and a rug.

Sitting on one of the couches was a black bald man. "Connor, Spike, where have you two been? And who are your friends?" The man asked. As Willow entered the room his face held at least some recognition for one of their companions. "Is the world ending again? The reinforcements don't usually show up unless it's an apocalypse." The man shut up after that waiting for some form of a response.

"Not sure yet. Where's the poof?" Spike asked as he walked further into the room.

"He went out on a case earlier. He should be back any minute now. So who are your friends, Willow I remember from way back when, but the others are new faces." The bald man stood up and dusted himself off.

"You never met Buffy?" Spike asked.

The bald man's face held shock for a few brief seconds. "Naw man, I joined up with the Angel after my crew got ripped to shreds. He was already working out of the hotel by then."

"Well this is obviously Buffy." He stated as he pointed her out. "The little niblit over her is her little sister Dawn." Spike pointed out a much taller brunet. "The pirate with the eye patch is Xander." Spike continued with the introductions. "Sasquatch over here is Sam, and the shorter one is Dean. They'd be the two hunters we were talking about earlier." The bald man seemed to stand a little taller at the announcement of the two hunters. "And the tax accountant next to them is the Angel Castiel." Spike finally finished.

"Gunn." The bald man answered. Before turning around and walking out of the room threw a hallway no one had noticed earlier.

"Is it me or has he gotten more glumly since the last time I was in town?" Willow asked.

"No, well, maybe, no one around here likes the Powers much. You know cause of Cordelia and all." Spike answered.

"What about Cordy?" Willow asked. "The last time I was in town I never got to see her. She kept saying she felt like crap. Oh and that reminds me, why were Faith and my memories altered?" Willow asked as she turned on Connor.

Connor darted his eyes over to Spike. "Hey don't look at me, Reds on a role. I was in Sunnyhell helping them stop the First. You were here at least that's what Blue keeps saying."

"I would rather Angel explain it, especially since it was his decision." Connor stated as Gunn, and a blue woman in leather entered the room.

"What are we explainin?" Gunn asked Connor.

"Me" was the only response Gunn received before Connor left the room.

"Ah, yeah I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole. Ask Angel, I'm not about piss anyone off." Gunn stated as he walked rejoined the group.

Spike noticed Illyria. "Red, meet Blue." He stated smugly.

Dean, Sam, and Castiel were instantly on guard Sam even had Ruby's knife in his hand, albeit no one could see said knife.

"Would you two chill? She's on our side." Spike stated. "And Buffy before you go into kill mode, she's not like Glorificus."

"How do you know of my old enemy Spike? I do not recall telling you of her."

"Remember when the Poof told you he knew people that could kill you if you stepped out of line?" Spike asked. She nodded he head. "Well this be them, don't worry unless you piss them off you should be fine Illyria." Spike stated.

Dawn, to her credit didn't dart behind Buffy at the mention of the evil hell goddess that tried to kill her. Instead she asked the one question that was on everyone's mind, but they hadn't quite formed into a coherent thought. "So, how'd you get here?"

Illyria's blank face morphed into one of confusion as she answered. "I was at rest in the deeper well where the remaining Old Ones sleep when I was resurrected into this shell. I once ruled what is now Los Angeles, but my vast armies have become dust as they awaited my return throughout the centuries."

Gunn and Connor reentered the room and Gunn picked up where Illyria stopped. "One of the science guy's in Fred's lab was a secret worshiper, and we missed that when we screened everyone. He back doored the sarcophagus from England, but it got stuck in customs. Which is where I got blackmailed into letting it threw. It ended up in her office and as soon as she touched it, she inhaled this dust."

"Peaches and I flew over to the deeper well, and talked to the guard and found out that if we kicked Illyria out, then a plague would be released so we couldn't do anything." Spike finished. Buffy was surprised at the dejected look he was wearing.

"I did not like this place, it is different. When I was forced to slumber, humans did not exist. Vampires were the scum between the toes. The one called Knox should not have done this." Illyria stated.

Just then the door from the sewer system opened and Angel stepped into the room, where he stopped and almost ran out the door. As he shuffled his feet, his eyes darted back and forth between the Scooby's and the three men standing next to them. "Buffy" he managed to squeak out. "What… what are you doing here?" he asked, his voice steadily gaining courage.

"Well we were in town looking for you guys, cause you know five years and not a peep out of the second line against a hell mouth. We would have been here a lot sooner if Giles and I had discussed it rather than pretend that the other one could read our minds. And I'm rambling. I'll shut up now."

"Oh, I knew you were in town, I meant in my living room."

"Oh, didn't you hear, Mom was a ghost, Apocalypse, someone trying to assonate me. You know the usual."

"When did people decide they could kill you will explosives?" Spike asked.

"Um, the evil slayer army led by this French Model. They tend to use explosives, which reminds me how did they know we were there? Cause not even Giles knew we were here."

"Buffy every demon in town knew you we here the second you stepped into town, it's a hell mouth." Angel responded.

"Right. How did that happen?"

"Well, the powers sent me a vision to take out the order of the black thorn, so we did, and then the senior partners got pissed cause that cut off their abilities to direct any apocalypses in this dimension, so they started opening a hell mouth here to make up for the one you guys destroyed, and somehow."

"Wait, that was why you were fighting a dragon in an ally?"

"How did you know that?" Angel asked.

"Skip, which reminds me." Buffy turned to face Castiel. "What's up with using demons to send us messages."

"I do not understand that question."

"Cass, she's asking why, wait what are you asking?" Dean stammered.

"You know skip showing up in the middle of our battle in Paris, zaps me over here does some weird blendie thing with them." Buffy pointed to Angel, Spike, Gunn, and Illyria. "And then suddenly I'm back in the cell, except I can suddenly break chains just by looking at them. And then we had the first slayer war, and we won and Paris didn't become another hell mouth, and I died again and woken up seconds before they lit the funeral pier."

"She had this glowing child on her shoulders except I was the only one that could see it." Willow added.

Dean and Sam had the same look of confusion on their faces until Willow mention being the only one that could see this glowing child. "Cass, how exactly does an Angel come into being?" Dean asked.

"I am not sure, It has been a few thousand years since a new Angel has joined our ranks, barring Anna of course." Castiel answered.

"Michael's lock down in the cage with Lucie who killed Gabriel, Uriel, and Zachariah are dead, not to mention all the others Zachariah was using, Balthazar is playing for a different team, and Raphael is still toting the kick start the Apocalypse line, so how many Angels that fight are actually alive? Cause the cupids ain't doing any fighting." Dean asked.

"Dean, it is civil war in Heaven, I do not have time to accompany you everywhere you go because you want friends. What is the point of these questions?" Castiel asked as he raised his voice in frustration.

Dean turned from Castiel to Buffy "How many times have you died?" He asked.

"Let's see, Drowned by the Master." Buffy put a finger up. "If you include alternate realities then he killed me twice, there was the worst nightmare thing when that kid was stuck in the coma, and I was turned in to a vampire for a few hours." She put up two more figure. "Jumped off that tower and closed the hell mouth, was dead for a month and Willow ripped me out of Heaven." She put up another figure. "And then Paris." And another figure went up. "So, five, or three if you don't include the nightmare and the alternate reality."

"How she do that?" Sam asked.

"Um, we thought she was in hell, cause she jumped into the hell mouth, so it was a logical deduction. I should have verified she was there before I did that spell. If I had known Buffy was in heaven, I would have left her there. I'm rambling, stopping now."

"How have we not run across you guys before? I tried everything I could think of to get Dean out of hell." Sam started.

"You did not resort to black magic. That is a good thing, because at one time you were hooked on it." Willow replied before her could finish.

"I've never been hooked on magic."

"Are you sure? Cause the vibes you're sending off is screaming blood magic and that's never good." Willow replied. Sam looked at the ground liked he'd been scolded. "Hey, no judgment here, that would be hypocritical of me seeing as I almost ended the world when I went through my dark magic faze." Willow replied.

Dawn who was standing next to Buffy put her hands in her pockets and pulled out the long forgotten ziplock. "Hey what's in the ziplock?" Angel asked.

"Were not sure, we found it behind this painting in Buffy's old house. Which is weird because Joyce did not paint, and Buffy remembers her painting this and then never seeing it again." Spike answered as He picked up the painting from the couch and trust it at him. "That's your department, Peaches."

Buffy took the ziplock from Dawn and slowly opened it. She pulled out the folded up papers and began reading. Her face quickly changed from one of confusion to one of disbelief as the papers slipped out of her hands and she slowly sank to the ground starring off in to space. Dawn grabbed the papers and quickly read the papers and then began looking back and forth between Buffy and the papers before she snorted. "That explains so much." She then bent down and wrapped Buffy in a hug.

"Um, guys not to be insensitive or anything cause you know I'm not, but what does the paper say?" Xander asked.

Dawn with shaking hand passed the papers over to Xander who leaned towards Willow so she could also read the papers. After a few seconds Willows face scrunched up in anger, and Xander's face fell into an emotionless stupor. Then after a few seconds it lit up as if he had an idea. "How can we be sure that this letter was written by Joyce? It could be a lie, because I don't see Joyce doing this without good reasons, or at all. So what if someone placed this letter behind that painting to lure Buffy into a trap? Because claiming that Hank is not her father, come to think of it, that does make so sense. Shutting up now."

"Who's this guy though, Xander, I don't remember Joyce ever mentioning him. And she told us about all of her boyfriends." Willow looked up at Xander and then went and hugged Buffy. "Buffy sweety look at me, look at me." Buffy finally moved her head to face Willow. "It will be ok. Hank left you guys, you remember that. He dumped you for his secretary. This just means that he's more of a dick for not telling any of us this. Remember what you said about him." Willow was desperately trying to get Buffy to say something. "He's a poopy head Buffy. He did not come to Joyce's funeral, and he didn't come to yours, so screw him."

Buffy smiled and then shaking stood up and took the papers back. "We need to find this guy. I don't remember mom ever mentioning him." She said as she reread the letter.

"Right let me work my magic." Willow said as she pulled out her lap top and began booting it up.

"What's this supposed to mean? 'He claims he's a hunter, but he doesn't kill animals.' There's a whole paragraph of mom trying to figure out what he was talking about, but then she gave up."

"Hunter?" Dean asked. "He may have meant Hunter, like us. What's his name, we may know him, or a way to get a hold of him?"

"It just says Bobby S there's no last name just an initial." Buffy told him.

"You have got to be firkin kidding me." Dean exclaimed as he grabbed the papers from her hands and began reading the portion of the letter about Bobby. He handed the letter back to Buffy as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Bobby's number.

Before it had the chance to connect the line went dead. "Did we mention the whole phone system not letting you dial out of town unless you have some serious mojo?" Spike asked.

"Is that why we never got a call for backup?" Willow asked.

"Yeah" Dean looked over at Castiel who just vanished."Whoa, where'd the Angel go?" Spike asked before Castiel reappeared with an older man wearing messy blue jeans, a tee shirt, a plaid shirt over that, and a trucker hat.

"This is much faster." Castiel responded to the man he brought with him, and then tilted his head as if he was listening to something. "I must go." And then the Angel was gone again.


End file.
